The Premier League’s Worst 11 of the 2015/16 Season

The 2015/16 Premier League season has been beyond incredible, the exploits of Leicester and Spurs have reinvigorated the league, while the plight of the “big guns” has made it one of the most exciting years in living memory.

But forget Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and the other headline grabbers, we’re here to look at this year’s flops, the players who’ve had real shockers (leaving out Adam Johnson of course, he played badly in a very different sense).

While it’s tempting to simply recite the Aston Villa first team, or indeed cobble together a Tyne-Wear XI, we’ve cast our eye over all 20 teams to pick the worst team from the 2015/16 season.

Goalkeeper

Intelligence, confidence, lightning reactions and a jaw dropping stopping ability are just some of the traits you want from a goalkeeper. Unfortunately for Bournemouth Artur Boruc exhibits almost none of these, with a thoroughly woeful shot stopping ability and an uncanny knack of causing mishaps near his own precious goal he is the perfect goalie for our worst XI.

Defence

In the good old days picking a calamitous defence was easy, you just picked Bramble and Boumsong, chucked in Djimi Traore and you were half way there. Now things aren’t quite as simple.

Aston Villa’s season has been beyond atrocious, and to heap much of that onto Alan Hutton would be unfair, but he certainly played his part. With Hutton at RB Villa have failed to win a single game in 25 attempts. To make matters worse he has also scored two own goals…

In the centre of the park we have Micah Richards, brought in to add experience and leadership, he has delivered the exact opposite. In 22 games as captain Villa have let in an almost impressive 48 goals.

Ok, lets have a brief reprieve from rubbing salt in Villa fan’s wounds and discuss Swansea’s Federico Fernandez, who has misplaced no less than 96 passes at the back of the park. Even the least aware football fan on Earth knows that passing to the opposition near your goal isn’t the smartest move,

Villa have conceded a goal every 39 minutes when Kieran Richardson is playing, making him the final piece in our quartet of catastrophe at the back.

Midfield

Last season Chelsea were a monster, their players were firing on all cylinders, and the Premier League Best XI was pretty much their starting eleven, plus David De Gea. This season couldn’t be more different, and one of the biggest falls from grace has been Nemanja Matic.

This season he has ranged from woeful to petulant and unrecognisable from the 2014/15 Matic who had Chelsea fans saying, “Makelele, who?” Thats why he has the “honour” of anchoring our team in the midfield.

Manchester United have a habit of developing big prospects into big jokes, and sadly for fans of Depay and Dutch football he’s more of a Djemba Djemba than a Ronaldo right now.

Tipped to shine in the Premier League, his lethal form in the World Cup and Dutch League haven’t been recreated for the Old Trafford faithful. Tired of his tortoise-like speeds and mesmerising ability to get dispossessed, he’s lucky that Martial, Rashford and Rooney are around to take the spotlight.

Last season Jack Grealish was the centre of a huge tug of war between England and Ireland, and lit up Villa’s FA Cup run. Fast forward a season and he’s failed to register a goal or even an assist. On top of that The Lions have failed to register a single win when he has played. Ouch.

Forwards

Agbonlahor really took it upon himself to stand out amongst the truly awful performances at Villa this season, and fully deserves his spot. Frankly, 15 apps and 1 solitary goal could have been enough to guarantee him a place, but combine that with his inability to be photographed without a Shisha Pipe in his mouth, and his complaints that training was “too intense” really seals the deal.

Joining Gabby up front is of course Andrej Kramaric. Who you ask? Yes, Leicester City’s record breaking signing. Amidst this incredible season Andrej has been invisible, appearing just twice so far. At 24, and costing £9 million he is rarely even a fixture on the bench, let alone the starting XI.

It’s certainly been tough to choose the final place, but based on the fact Saido Berahino has gone from hero to zero in the space of two transfer windows he seems like a worthy inclusion. After petulantly declaring he would never play for West Brom again, and airing his frustration on Twitter, he has delivered just 4 goals this season.

It’s never smart as a young striker to alienate the heads of your club, and earn a bad reputation, but that what Saido did.